Well as you can see the ears are emerging well.It didnt help when we managed to scorch the crop with liquid N applied as a foliar we did this twice with straight UAN . You would have thought we would of learnt the first time.
There is some clover growing underneath but not enough to contribute anything next year.
Application wise , we have sprayed small ammounts of fungicide, growth regulator and phosphite and masses of magnesium,manganese.
Total N use will be approx 150 kg/N /ha.
Having visited the Cereals show, we will be changing our ways next season, the plan is split another field in 2 and spray one half conventionally with fungicides and one half with just nutrients and microbes.
So the Small Tustins experiment or whatever it is will end this summer and it will go back to a conventional system.The reason being is that to farm biologically you have to change your entire farming system , it takes time and effort , but above all it relies on long term change. The way we farm is very short term (apart from the land we own) because we have no long term tenancies , in other words we need a return from monies invested in a period of no longer than 2 years.So we need to apply foliar products and place products with seed that only that growing crop needs now these products can be from the "biological stable". But long term change of soil structure using expensive composts etc is not .(compost tea any one)
I have some ideas brewing (no pun intended) and will start another blog next year.
However I will continue to take photos and let you know about harvest .
Thank you for following this blog .
Mark
